Pro Bundles

I notice that the V5 Pro bundle is available at a reduced price again (when purchased with one of the qualifying promotional products)
but here is my dilemma: I already have V5 and several of the items in the bundle. Nevertheless, DAZ in their infinite wisdom have restricted availability of certain geo-grafted parts to the Pro bundle. Even at a reduced price, I feel that is too much to expect people to pay in order to get a single item from the pack. Why not make these items available as separate products?

Comments

You could open a support ticket asking about the possibility of "upgrading" your current files to the Pro Bundle, though whether that would be cheaper than the current offer if it was even possible I don't know. The question about separate availability has been asked before and it seems clear that the answer is no.

Is there an official complaints channel, as a matter of interest? "Seems clear" just doesn't cut it.

"Seems clear" just mean that this conversation has happened for about a year and a half, and your solution is really seeing if you can upgrade what you have through a support ticket. If they haven't budged in that long, they're probably not going to.

"Seems clear" just mean that this conversation has happened for about a year and a half, and your solution is really seeing if you can upgrade what you have through a support ticket. If they haven't budged in that long, they're probably not going to.

You would probably have to search the old forum archives but there were several threads spelling out why DAZ chose to make the gens for both the male and the females available only if you buy the Pro Bundle.

I took advantage of the 70% discount for Steph 5 Pro Bundle (great offer, btw) and so finally got the geo-grafted item described in this thread. It turns out to be little more than a simple crease - I really can't see any point in a geo-grafted product for such a simple morph. No movement or shaping options at all - at least I can't find any.

My advice for anyone tempted to splash out on a Pro Bundle to get this item - unless there is a significant discount as in the FastGrab price for Steph5 Pro, don't bother.

I took advantage of the 70% discount for Steph 5 Pro Bundle (great offer, btw) and so finally got the geo-grafted item described in this thread. It turns out to be little more than a simple crease - I really can't see any point in a geo-grafted product for such a simple morph. No movement or shaping options at all - at least I can't find any.

My advice for anyone tempted to splash out on a Pro Bundle to get this item - unless there is a significant discount as in the FastGrab price for Steph5 Pro, don't bother.

Otherwise, I can't complain at all about the bundle at that price.

well there are 3rd party morphs for the genitals over at renderotica afaik, so I guess that's an improvement over gen4.

I took advantage of the 70% discount for Steph 5 Pro Bundle (great offer, btw) and so finally got the geo-grafted item described in this thread. It turns out to be little more than a simple crease - I really can't see any point in a geo-grafted product for such a simple morph. No movement or shaping options at all - at least I can't find any.

My advice for anyone tempted to splash out on a Pro Bundle to get this item - unless there is a significant discount as in the FastGrab price for Steph5 Pro, don't bother.

Otherwise, I can't complain at all about the bundle at that price.

It originally had a separate morph, but DAZ removed it with the later releases.

It turns out to be little more than a simple crease - I really can't see any point in a geo-grafted product for such a simple morph. No movement or shaping options at all - at least I can't find any.

As mentioned, DAZ nerfed it somewhere around version 1.4 or 1.5. The original version had an extra mat zone for the inside bits and a morph to open it up some (though not in any realistic manner). Still nothing to write home about, but better than what they are passing off as female genitals now. The current version is pretty deceitful marketing, if you ask me. If you had an early version of it, you could manually combine it with the current version to retain the original functionality while gaining the S5 UV mapping they added to it when S5 was released. (Not that an S5 mapping really matters, since there is what -- oh, all of three skins that use S5's maps...)

I've got the pre-nerfed version, as I got the V5 Pro bundle early on. It looks a bit better than using Satsuki's crease or the freebie "puffy lips" morph from ShareCG when you're going for that "only a hint of visibility" camera angle, or wanting to add some cameltoe to a tight-fitting bottom. (Because it's a geograft, smoothing and collision will treat its shape as if it was really Genesis, allowing the CT look to work.) But you won't be using it for any camera angles prominently featuring that area, since it was clearly handled as a "necessary evil" by DAZ and they did as little as possible for it as they could, and then subsequently nerfed even that.

I don't really do full frontal nudity renders (I do a fair bit of topless, but I don't think full frontal is all that sexy -- having a lacy bottom or some such is much sexier), but if I had purchased the pro bundle specifically for the gens, I'd have felt pretty cheated.

Adding a new material zone for the interior shouldn't be too hard with the Polygon Selection tool - I should think if you select the outer polygons, the ones that need the skin texture, and hide them you could then lasso-select the remainder, right-click, and choose Polygon Assignment>Create Surface from Selected. Then apply a suitable map, or just diffuse colour. Of course to do the job properly you'd want to remap the interior, which would require exporting an OBJ to a mapping application then loading the modified OBJ as a new UV set.

It turns out to be little more than a simple crease - I really can't see any point in a geo-grafted product for such a simple morph. No movement or shaping options at all - at least I can't find any.

As mentioned, DAZ nerfed it somewhere around version 1.4 or 1.5. The original version had an extra mat zone for the inside bits and a morph to open it up some (though not in any realistic manner). Still nothing to write home about, but better than what they are passing off as female genitals now. The current version is pretty deceitful marketing, if you ask me. If you had an early version of it, you could manually combine it with the current version to retain the original functionality while gaining the S5 UV mapping they added to it when S5 was released. (Not that an S5 mapping really matters, since there is what -- oh, all of three skins that use S5's maps...)

I've got the pre-nerfed version, as I got the V5 Pro bundle early on. It looks a bit better than using Satsuki's crease or the freebie "puffy lips" morph from ShareCG when you're going for that "only a hint of visibility" camera angle, or wanting to add some cameltoe to a tight-fitting bottom. (Because it's a geograft, smoothing and collision will treat its shape as if it was really Genesis, allowing the CT look to work.) But you won't be using it for any camera angles prominently featuring that area, since it was clearly handled as a "necessary evil" by DAZ and they did as little as possible for it as they could, and then subsequently nerfed even that.

I don't really do full frontal nudity renders (I do a fair bit of topless, but I don't think full frontal is all that sexy -- having a lacy bottom or some such is much sexier), but if I had purchased the pro bundle specifically for the gens, I'd have felt pretty cheated.

I do have the original V5 gens, and reinstalled it after installing the one that came with S5. It works fine, now, and I've installed two sets of morphs from Renderotica that help a lot. In another thread, I remember someone saying that the third-party morphs don't work quite right with just the S5 version, but I don't know from personal experience. I don't really do full nude renders much either, but I do like to be able to have more control over the gens when I do a render like that. Now I just need to get the morphs for the M5 gens. One of these days...

I'm wondering whether a prop of any kind is required (unless you need one of those "fully functional" jobs sold at R'otica)?

A combination of the standard pubic area morphs and one of the skins that have a 2D surface image (I think Riley is an example) and the addition of a good displacement map (or normal map) might work? I'm a novice in these techniques but it ought to be possible.

Perhaps the PA who did the good stuff for vascularity might have some advice.

Edit: That PA is Zev0 - but I couldn't find the product here, it is on sale elsewhere, though.

I'm wondering whether a prop of any kind is required (unless you need one of those "fully functional" jobs sold at R'otica)?

A combination of the standard pubic area morphs and one of the skins that have a 2D surface image (I think Riley is an example) and the addition of a good displacement map (or normal map) might work? I'm a novice in these techniques but it ought to be possible.

Perhaps the PA who did the good stuff for vascularity might have some advice.

Edit: That PA is Zev0 - but I couldn't find the product here, it is on sale elsewhere, though.

Personally I do not use V5 Gens. I use Poisons she gen for Genesis. It has more flexability and can take v4 textures. There are also additional morphs you can get for the v5 and m5 gens. Also I use EroGenesis Lallies bits (prop) if I want all the internal and morph detail in the world. The two can be combined. All have been done already and are all available at Rotica:) I cannot paste links but everything you need is over there:)

Personally I do not use V5 Gens. I use Poisons she gen for Genesis. It has more flexability and can take v4 textures. There are also additional morphs you can get for the v5 and m5 gens. Also I use EroGenesis Lallies bits if I want all the internal and morph detail in the world. All have been done already and are all available at Rotica:) I cannot past links but everything you need is over there.

I was thinking more of whether it is worth creating a product for displacement/normal maps as an overlay like the one you did for vascularity. Perhaps I don't have the correct understanding of it but I'm encouraged by Richard's post, I think I might try for something myself in Photoshop or similar.

External - it is a little difficult to describe these things in a general forum such as this (I do think that DAZ should create an adult site and perhaps have a Ken & Barbie site for those who don't wish to be exposed to this kind of discussion).

I'm not too fussed about the functioning parts, if I may put it that way. I'm more concerned with realism. A simple crease might suffice at times but other times require a little more to be exposed. It isn't as though DAZ dont sell realistic skins - they do. So there is more than a little hypocrisy in selling props and morphs which "cover-up" those details.

I guess it should be clear to those who market the products that a large part of their customer base is interested in some degree of erotica. I like to read sci-fi and fantasy novels but have no interest in that kind of art work. I think the old term "Glamour" would better describe my taste.

Just to clarify a little more: some things require polygons while other effects can be achieved with displacement/normal maps. Scars, wrinkles surface wounds, etc. would be examples of the latter.